Sérannian Clothing Style
Table of Contents
Description of Sérannian clothing style and all the little discomforts they imply and of the hidden meanings behind the jewellery...
Isabelle
Isabelle is a young French woman who was brought through a magical portal to Sérannie, hit with translation magic, and told to help the Séranniens beat their Dark Lord. Only, once the questing party triumphed, she was forced back to the normal world. She is rather bitter about that.While looking for a way to go back, she writes journal entries about her time in Sérannie to not forget what happened and to prepare for her return, illustrating her notebook by sticking postits with emojis scribbles, drawing, or printing photos.
Clothing
Commoners
Regardless of gender, commoners wear tunics of different lengths, going from mid-thigh to the ankles depending on season and activities. Those tunics are made of a big piece of cloth that is wrapped around them and attached at one shoulder with a brooch, leaving the other shoulder bare. Which shoulder it is depends on the occasion and is not something I've completely managed to elucidate yet...This type of clothing is what all members of the Questing Party wore to try to stay incognito while we were defeating the Dark Lord. Over the tunic, Séranniens wear large cloth belt that hold tools and weapons, vests with or without sleeves, and, in winter, cloaks. The only underwear worn is a long piece of cloth that is wrapped around the breasts to provide support for the people who need it. The only thing that can be said about that is that it's really not great, and I'm bringing back a stock of underwear with me when I'll go back! The shoes they wear are high boots, ankle boots, sandals, or slippers. But whatever they, are Sérannian shoes are terrible! We never laud enough what modern technologies have allowed us to do in matters of shoes! The only way not to end up the day with bleeding feet in Sérannie has been to sew runes onto my shoes and waste magic to power them all the time!Soldiers
Soldiers wear tunics which are sometimes in the colour of their patrons' House. However, it is more common to have the tunic in a basic colour and to rather use the symbol on the pin holding it up to indicate the patrons—less expensive that way. The tunics are mid-thigh- or knee-length but never longer, so as to allow the soldiers to fight and run without impeding their movements. They are worn above a leather armour that seems to be made of strips wrapped around the torso and one shoulder, and some kind of netted tights made with a plant fibre that has a great resistance to wear but is terribly scratchy. They wear metal protections around their arm, neck and ankles, a belt and a helmet, and all of them are covered with runic diagrams. From what I've seen, each patron chooses a different runic design for their soldiers, and they all try to keep it secret. The magic they grant seems to be centred around magical and physical protections, enhanced strength and agility, and accelerated healing. All very nice, except that this sucks up an incredibly high amount of magic when used, and they completely lack any kind of flexibility in their activation.Nobles
Sérannian noble dress by Annie Stein
The different layers are:
1) A shift, similar to a long nightdress without sleeves. It's not quite transparent, but almost.
2) Their equivalent of a bra for those who need it. It's a big square of tissue, commonly in a pale colour and with faint golden runes embroidered on it. One side of the cloth is positioned on the shoulder, attached to the shift with a very small pin. The cloth is then wrapped around the body, going below the breasts for the first round, covering the bottom half of them for the second, and ending back on the same shoulder where it is fixed with another pin.
3) The first real layer of the dress. It's a very thin, simple cloth that is slightly transparent. It is wrapped around the whole body and also pinned twice to keep it up on the same shoulder as before. This layer is replicated several times, varying the length and the placement over the body depending on the style you want to achieve. Together, all the semi-transparent layers make a fully opaque dress.
4) The last layer of cloth. It's also wrapped in the same way, and it is ends up covering most of the others. A more elaborate cloth is used for that one, often with patterns or runes embroidered on it. It is attached at the shoulder with a prominent brooch or cloth pin.
I've never worn anything like that.During the Quest, this would have made us stand out way too much. And after we came back to the palace, I wasn't around long enough to get new clothes—or rather, it's now obvious that it was just an excuse they used to force me to keep wearing commoner clothing, a way to humiliate me and to keep me separate from the rest of the group in everyone's mind.
Makeup, skincare, and perfume
Makeup
Séranniens all wear the same kind of makeup regardless of gender. This is limited to colourful lip balms that protect against the dryness of the climate, eyeshadows in dark colours—in particular blue, green and grey—and some eyeliners in an assorted dark colour. Paleness is favoured, as this is the sign that people have enough money not to have to work outside under the sun. Still, hiding your true skin colour is seen as deceitful and despicable, and so Séranniens don't use foundation or rouge. I'd say it's great for people who don't want to spend hours on makeup, but Séranniens more than compensate for that.Indeed, since they don't hide their skin, taking care of it and keeping it healthy is super important.Miracle balm by AmélieIS with the Collections du Musée du Louvre
Skincare
People with the means to buy them and the time for long hygiene routine use tons of creams and balms all over themselves. Spending hours on those every day is seen as perfectly normal, and having an enormous bathtub in their house is a must for noble Séranniens.Poor people make do with going to the public thermal baths at least once a week for an intense care session. Since I was "on the road" for almost all my time in Sérannie, I haven't really seen the full routine, but I still travelled with royals and their "minimal care" was still much better than what most commoners will ever see in their life.I think they all can easily compete with the most extreme routines from the normal world—not that I know too much about those. What I can say is that the Sérannian ones actually worked! My skin was smooth as a baby and all acne problems completely disappeared while I was in Sérannie!Perfumes
Séranniens don't have alcohol-based perfumes like we do. Instead, they mix them in balms that they apply on the neck and shoulders, in shampoo, or in water spray to put on their hair during the day. All perfumes have a sweet base, and fruity smells are preferred over flowers. Again, there is no difference between genders regarding perfume choices. Personally, I love those based on lariche fruit.Lariche fruits by Annie Stein
Hairstyle and jewellery
Hairstyle
Like the rest of clothing and society, hairstyle in Sérannie is not truly divided between genders. Most people wear their hair long and up, as untied hair is seen as only fit for the bedroom. The most favoured styles all have some kind of braids in them that are joined together in some way and secure with hairpins. Style with braids but not buns also exist, but they are associated with lower-class commoners. This is all because such styles do not truly allow for hairpins, and hairpins are considered an essential piece of jewellery. Since even during the Quest we didn't want to be mistaken for those, I've become an expert at braiding my hair now.Jewellery
Outside of hairpins and cloth pins, Séranniens mostly use rings and bracelets clinging to the upper and lower arms. Most tend to be rather gaudy, showing off precious metals, stones, and woods, with the local green serpentine being well appreciated. Séranniens do not pierce their ears and so do not wear any jewellery on them. Necklaces are more rarely worn, and when they are, they are almost always some kind of collar. During my time in Sérannie, I only wore a few bracelets offered to me by my boyfriend, Calendre. Not that I've gotten to keep any of that, of course, now that I was forced back in the normal world.Hairpins and cloth pins
While hairpins and cloth pins can be decorative, they're surprisingly mostly seen as a way to show off political affiliations.For nobles, the cloth pins they wear are supposed to be their own house emblems, and they can also choose to wear a hairpin to indicate their belonging to a political party or an organisation or their fealty to a patron. Servants and employees don't have a choice and have to wear the pin of their patrons either as a hairpin or a cloth pin. Poorer Séranniens only use cloth pins since they don't belong to any house of note themselves. Anyway, a client's pin is always in a different colour from that of the members of their patron House, so there is no risk of confusion. It is patrons' duty to offer the pins to their clients, and so their quality is a direct statement of their wealth and of how much they value the client wearing it. It is also a proof of being an official representative of a House, and so wearing a pin without authorisation is a grave insult.Sérannian bracelet by Philippe Van Doninck on Unsplash
Here are a few examples:
- the King and royal family: a great golden eagle soaring in flight. Green pins are reserved for members of the royal family, while grey pins are worn by their servants and direct clients.
- the Academy of Mages: a prominent sarlane rune engraved on a pearl is worn by all members of the academy, with the colour of the pin used to indicate the speciality of each mage.
- the Caldère House: a cale, a small white and blue bird.
- the Naline House: a roanne purple leaf on a blue background,
- a new political party made mostly of young people fed up with the Caldères' hold on politics: an autumnal mérie leaf pin, resembling a maple leaf, to represent death of the old and change.
- a political party led by Lady Astrance representing people from the Ullie mountains in central Sérannie: mountain tops.
- some young people wear the pin of their crush in the hope of attracting their attention, and some older individuals wear the pin of their favourites or their lovers. However, most Séranniens find this to be a foolish custom, both because it demeans the wearers as being submissive to the owner of the pin and because they're wearing the pin without authorisation.
Wow. I think it's great that you have made an article about it - even if Isabelle was somehow not so in a good mood (which is absolutely incomprehensible ;) ). The clothing style I find well described and my respect regarding the hairstyles. What I find good is that through this article comes out that there were definitely serious differences between the empires of the ancient world and their clothing style and hairstyles (especially the hairstyles). Honestly, it really stimulates my imagination for my Beliazari ^^. Informative was also their (working) skin care. Really really like the idea of pins being used to express affiliations. That's really imaginative and practical. So thank you very much for the article.
Thank you :D The hairpins were really a spur of the moment thing while I was writing the novel during Nanowrimo, but I was really inspired with that idea XD Hairstyle is a place where we're very creative in real life but that doesn't often come across in writing because of how difficult it is to describe different style and make them sound different :( Making a drawing allowed me to cheat, but now I'll have to see if I can actually make use of the information in the novel XD